


Thresholds

by Chicaroscuro



Category: Ghost - Mystery Skulls (Music Video), Mystery Skulls (Band)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-11
Updated: 2014-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-24 23:13:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2600054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chicaroscuro/pseuds/Chicaroscuro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some things are meant to be left behind, and some doors are meant to stay closed. But Vivi never lets go of a mystery, Arthur can't let go of the past, and Lewis will not go gentle into the good night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

After escaping the mansion, they drove through the dark for two hours until they hit a small roadside motel. Arthur didn’t say a single word the whole time. When they stopped, he just got out of the van and made a beeline for a room, with Mystery close on his heels. Vivi was left behind, speechless, looking at the dent his metal hand had left in the steering wheel.

Arthur had always been nervous around their more supernatural cases. More than nervous - he was downright _terrified_ of ghosts. People often wondered why he’d even joined the Mystery Skulls in the first place, but Vivi knew exactly why. They were friends. No matter how scared he was, he’d have never let her walk into potential danger alone. Even cowering, he was always there at her side. Sometimes she felt guilty about it, but well...if it bothered him _that_ much, he’d just leave, wouldn’t he?

Tonight was the first time she honestly, truly thought he might. This time was different, in so many more ways than she understood, and Vivi wasn’t sure if she was more frightened for her friend or for herself. Silently, she gathered a few things and climbed out into the dark parking lot herself. It was more of the old story: the feeling that there was something important she’d forgotten.

She felt like that a lot lately, like there was something just on the edges of her mind, and it bothered her far more than any ghost or monster ever could. She made lists and reminders to try and figure it out, but nothing helped, so she mostly just tried to put it out of her mind. There were too many things to do to spend all her time stressing over this nagging sense of doubt.

With the last of their cash, she checked into a room down the hall from where Arthur had gone. They wouldn’t be able to stay here another night. No big deal. It wasn’t the first time by far that money had been tight; solving mysteries was her passion, but it wasn’t always the most lucrative of ventures. There would just have to be more van nights, where they folded the back seat down and huddled close together to share blankets and body heat, with Mystery curled up between them. Vivi liked those nights, hearing her friends’ slow breathing at her side. Even parked on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, she often felt safer like that than she did alone in a cheap motel room. After a night like this, she could’ve used the closeness. Art probably could too...she hesitated outside the door of his room as she passed.

“Arthur?” She hefted the backpack on her shoulder and rapped lightly against the wood with her knuckles. “Are you there?” It was an empty question, of course she already knew he was in there, but she leaned in to listen for an answer anyway. Nothing. Vivi folded her arms close around her, tucking her hands into the sleeves of her sweater. “I just wanted to let you know, I’m two doors down. Room 213. If you need anything.”

Still no response. Vivi waited a few moments more, before muttering a “Good night, Arthur,” and heading to her own room. She wished he wouldn’t lock himself away like this. Arthur was her friend, but sometimes it felt like he never really _talked_ to her. They could spend hours in the van babbling about music or movies, but the second the conversation grew serious, it was like he just vanished. Had he always been like that? She couldn't recall anymore.

He had Mystery in there with him, at least, and Mystery could always make Art smile. He’d be okay, she hoped.

Sitting on the edge of her mattress, she hugged her bag close to her chest and stared blankly at the dark TV screen for a long time.

This time was different.

When you got right down to it, most of their cases involving ghosts didn’t _really_ end up being ghosts. It was disappointing, but true. People faked hauntings for all kinds of weird reasons. But that? _That_ was a bona-fide real-life haunted house, complete with angry specter. Vivi closed her eyes, easily picturing the ghost’s purple gaze on her again. There was something about it - about him? She felt it was a him, just as sure as she’d felt he was about to say something before Arthur had dragged her away. Maybe if she’d taken that locket, he’d have spoken to her?

Heaving a sigh, Vivi slung her back to the ground and started rummaging through it. This wasn’t her overnight bag. This one was full of books, most of which were about supernatural phenomena and only half of which she even remembered buying. She was never gonna get Arthur to go back to that place. She couldn’t blame him either; that ghost had almost fried him. But it stopped when _she_ got involved, and she couldn’t _stand_ not knowing why he looked at her that way. It didn't make any sense. And hey, wasn’t that why they were out here? To solve mysteries?

Maybe she could try making contact another way, a way that didn’t necessarily involve ditching Art in the middle of nowhere to go explore a haunted mansion alone. After the way that ghost blew up, even Vivi could admit to herself that that would probably be a bad idea.

“Okay... _here_ we go.” Her memory hadn’t served her wrong this time. Here it was - the perfect book: _Beyond the Veil._ Cheesy title, but hey, it got the point across. Why she had a book on methods of contacting ghosts, she wasn’t even entirely sure, but Vivi didn’t care to question it. She just kicked off her shoes and curled back on the bed to leaf through the pages. “How credible are you, anyway...?” She didn’t recognize the name of the author, but _someone_ who knew what they were doing had definitely been through this book already. Some passages were highlighted, and the margins were full of little notes, all neatly printed in purple ink. Maybe she got this at a garage sale? Whoever the previous owner was, they’d handily marked the chapter headings that were clearly bunk, and circled a few others. After a moment of thought, Vivi decided she agreed with the assessment and turned to those, just to skim the highlighted parts.

_Ouija boards_. She didn’t have one of those, or anyone to use it with her. Plus, as Purple Pen noted, they weren’t really all that reliable. _Electronic voice phenomena._ She’d actually gotten results with that before! Maybe Purple had too, they just circled the chapter heading a few times and wrote “!!!” next to it. But again, she’d have to go back to the mansion to get recordings, and there was no way she was doing that by herself.

How about a summoning circle? This was about where her purple friend had stopped highlighting, so Vivi had to read the whole thing for herself. It was supposedly a reliable way of summoning a _specific_ spirit, but it had to be specific; you wrote their name into the circle and everything. So that kinda ruled that out. She’d never gotten Skeleton Ghost’s name.

But she remembered him so clearly. She could still imagine his eyes, his ridiculously cute fire-hair, the glowing golden heart that he carried...she’d reached out to take it, and she almost thought she _knew_ how her hand would fit in his.

...good god, was she developing a weird crush on this ghost? It had tried to kill her best friend!

“I have got to be _really_ tired,” she moaned to herself, taking off her glasses to rub at her eyes. Still, there was no way she’d be able to sleep _now_. Finding a haunted mansion and getting chased by a real ghost had a way of leaving you keyed up, not to mention the energy drinks she'd stolen from Arthur's stash. Maybe she could just give the summoning thing a shot, for science or whatever. Then she’d know she’d at least _tried_. It beat lying awake in bed and staring at the ceiling.

Standing, Vivi went into the tiny cramped bathroom and grimaced. Ugh. Was this place ever cleaned? “No wonder it was so cheap...” Glancing around, she grabbed a towel and spread it on the floor before kneeling down. She didn’t have any chalk, but a girl could improvise: you could draw just as well with blue lipstick on tile, and she was at the end of this tube anyway. The book got propped carefully on the edge of the bathtub, where she could look at it while tracing out the runes. She didn’t understand any of them at all - the book said they were something called Modified Sumerian - but she guessed it didn’t really matter. This probably wasn’t going to work anyway.

Then came the part where she had to name the ghost. Right. Vivi sat back on her heels, closing her eyes for a moment. What if she just _thought_ about him while she did the summoning part? Maybe if she just pictured him in her head, very clearly...

Magenta hair and eyes. Tall, surprisingly broad-shouldered for being a skeleton. She thought of a football player when she looked at him, but there wasn’t anything especially athletic about his dress. A very well-fitting suit, kinda formal even for him. But hey, Lewis was always the one who had to dress all fancy...

_Lewis._

Vivi gasped, her eyes shooting open. Lewis. Why did she know that name? She didn’t know exactly where it’d come from, but the sound of it settled in her mind. “Lewis,” she tried aloud, her whisper still feeling too loud in the tiny white room. It felt...right.

Well, and even if that _wasn’t_ right, and she’d just heard the name on TV or something stupid like that, it wouldn’t really hurt anything. She’d just have to clean a whole lot of lipstick off the floor. Vivi leaned forward and scrawled the name into the last place around the circle, her hands trembling from what had to be cold. This was it. Her last chance to stop this, and maybe _not_ summon an angry fire ghost into her hotel bathroom.

She leaned forward to grab the book, and began carefully reading the incantation from its pages.

Not three words in, the circle erupted into a column of magenta flame.

 

\---

 

**Vivi?**

Vivi blinked, and realized that she was huddled face-down on the ground with her arms over her neck. Cautiously, she moved them, lifting her head.

The circle of runes was still in place, now glowing with a faint white light that kept the ghost inside. He hovered slightly off the ground, and though his ectoplasm-hair was still in place, he certainly looked calmer than she’d seen him last. Also, he’d just said her name.

“Y-yes?” Vivi narrowed her eyes, annoyed at the tremble in her voice. She was _not_ afraid. “Do I know you?”

The skeleton looked hurt. She couldn’t explain it, but his brow had definitely creased in what looked like pain. **Vivi, it’s _me!_** the voice insisted, a deep ethereal sound that came more from the air around the spirit than from any part of his body. **Lewis! You don’t...you really don’t remember me?**

“No,” Vivi answered automatically. Then she glanced down at his name, clearly written about the circle in her own lipstick. “I mean...”

Still frowning, he followed her gaze to the ground, and the flames in his eye sockets brightened. **Oh...this is a summoning circle. I remember this!** The skeleton turned about in midair, looking down at the runes imprisoning him. **Oh, this isn’t right,** he said, pointing down at one. **Vi, you should really be more careful with these, this is the part about imprisonment. If it’s not right, a hostile spirit could just step right out of the circle like it’s nothing.**

“Oh.” Vivi blinked. “Well, um. Thanks.” That was awkward. And lucky, on her part, that he hadn’t just taken advantage of it. “So you _aren’t_ a hostile spirit?” she snapped, trying to recover her bearings. She wasn't about to let him grab the upper hand just like that. “After the way you blew up back there?”

**Vi...** The lights in his eyes dimmed almost completely, and he floated down from the air to kneel across from her. **I’m so, so sorry, Vivi. I never meant to hurt you. I just...I just got so _angry_...but I wouldn’t hurt you in a million years, you have to believe me! I just wanted to give you this.**

He reached into his suit coat, and came out with the heart. It wasn’t glowing or golden anymore; it had faded to a dull blue color, and a crack split the face nearly in half. Again Lewis held it out, and again Vivi automatically reached forward. Her breath was frosting in the air, she realized distantly. Was this wise? Everything about him felt familiar, in that particular way that always bothered her...it felt like she could trust him. And she’d never figure out that nagging familiarity if she wasn’t willing to take a few risks.

Her hand closed around the locket, and everything came flooding back.

_Three of them. She’d founded Mystery Skulls with three: her, Lewis, and Arthur. The three of them in the van together, laughing and talking over each other about their latest adventure. Lewis’s hand in hers as they walked together, through haunted farms or abandoned buildings._

_Or caves._

Vivi realized there were tears running down her face. “Lewis...” She reached up to wipe them away, but instead choked back a sob as she pressed her hand to his eyes. “Oh god, _Lewis_...I’m so _sorry!_ ” How could she have forgotten? She _loved_ him, she’d watched him _die_ , and then she just _forgot?_

He reached out for her, and she crossed the circle without thought to wrap her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. For a ghost, he was still warm to the touch. That made sense. **It’s okay,** his voice hummed around her as he lightly stroked her hair. **You’re not the one who should be sorry.**

“What?” Vivi pulled back slightly to look up at him. “What do you mean?”

**Arthur. It was _him_. He killed me.**

The air left her lungs as if she’d been punched. “Arthur?” Vivi repeated in a small voice. She could remember now, the way he’d sometimes looked at them. Whenever he realized she’d noticed, he’d glance away and pretend it was nothing, but she’d always known he felt left out sometimes. Maybe it was inevitable, when two of them paired off, that there’d be some hurt feelings somewhere. But... _Arthur?_ How could he have possibly done such a thing? They were all supposed to be friends!

She remembered the way Arthur had been, two years ago. At the time, she’d just thought it was because of the mysterious accident that cost him his arm, but now she realized it must was right after Lewis died as well. That explained so _much._

After days of quiet visits and avoided eye-contact, Vivi had walked into his hospital room one evening to find Arthur finally out of bed. His left shoulder had just been fitted with the neurosocket, which would one day dock a replacement limb, but now it was empty and the sleeve draped over it flapped lightly in the wind. Her best friend was standing before the open window, leaning forward slightly, and he didn’t move when he heard her come in. He just spoke a single sentence.

_“What do you think it’s like?”_

Even now, the memory made her shiver. Lewis leaned forward, resting his hand lightly on hers, and she took a shuddering breath before speaking.

“He...he was really bad after you died, Lewis. For a really long time. He’s been better lately, a lot better, but he wasn’t himself for months. Once I had to - “

Had to talk him back into the room. Sat on the edge of his bed and let him sob into her shoulder about something he would never, ever explain to her. Spent months in the van with a strange, silent version of her normally energetic friend, worrying each night that she’d wake to find him gone. It had been months before he began to be himself again, and they weren’t months she had the words to describe. “ - Lewis, I think he almost killed himself.”

_**Good.** _

The venom in his voice frightened her. Lewis didn’t talk like that at _all_ , much less about one of their own. But she couldn't stay frightened for long, not with the memory of her friend's too-pale face so fresh in her mind. “How can you say that?” She tugged back out of his arms, punched him in the shoulder the way she used to, and tried very hard to pretend she hadn’t just bruised her knuckles on bone. “Arthur is our _friend_ , Lewis!”

**HE _KILLED_ ME!** The sockets of Lewis’s skull flashed white, and his hair dissolved into lapping tongues of magenta fire. **HOW CAN _YOU_ DEFEND HIM AFTER THAT?**

Waves of heat crashed over Vivi, but she just gritted her teeth and glared up at him. “Lewis, don’t you _dare_ set this place on fire. Don’t you even _dare!”_

Almost immediately, the flames died down. **I...I’m sorry,** Lewis said, sounding stricken.

“It’s fine.” Vivi turned to brace herself against the sink, shutting her eyes. “It’s fine. And I’m sorry too. I just...”

It just didn’t feel right. She never could have really pictured Arthur getting violent before, but now that she remembered everything, she _certainly_ couldn’t picture him trying to hurt _Lewis_. The two of them had been friends even before she met either of them. From what she knew, they’d been close since they were kids. Even after she and Lewis started dating, it had always sort of been the three of them. Lewis, Arthur, and Vivi: the Mystery Skulls kids.

But with all that in mind, why would Lewis lie to incriminate him?

“It isn’t that I don’t believe you.” The words fell like lead from her lips. “But I want to hear it from him. I don’t want you to hurt him until I’ve heard everything.”

Lewis’s brow furrowed in a frown. **And then?**

And then? What would she do if it were true, and she’d been traveling with her boyfriend’s killer for the past two years? Could she really have misjudged him so badly? Vivi rubbed the tears from her face with the sleeve of her sweater, then leaned forward to wipe a hole in the lipstick circle as well, making the protective glow fade. “We’ll figure it out then,” she said, moving aside to make room for Lewis floating out of the circle. “Come on - he’s just down the hall. Let’s go talk.”

But Lewis stayed where he was. **I can’t. I’m bound to the area where I died...and here, now.** He glanced about, as if he'd only just noticed there was more to the room than Vivi. Looking at him, she had a sudden wild urge to make some dumb joke, to try to make the tension bleed out of his shoulders.

But that was always Arthur's department. The spirit's eye sockets narrowed and white-purple flames began to lick across his shoulders and down his hands. **Bring him back _here_.**

Vivi would be lying if she said she didn’t have a moment of sudden doubt. But she nodded, and backed out of the room. She didn't want anyone getting hurt. But there was going to be some _explaining_ tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

Sometimes Arthur thought all he ever did was fuck up.

It sure _seemed_ that way, at least. He lay on the hotel bed for nearly an hour, staring up at the ceiling and ignoring Mystery nosing at his side, before his heart rate reached anything near normal. He’d done it again, hadn’t he?

That had been Lewis back there. He knew it, even if Vivi didn’t, he’d known it from the second he saw that hair appear. It could’ve been funny - Lew hanging onto that stupid hairdo of his, even after death - but Arthur couldn’t work up the will to smile.

Why had he run?

The answer was obvious, of course: he didn’t want to die. It was selfish, but he _didn’t._ He’d thought he deserved to, right after the cave, but even then he hadn’t really _wanted_ to. Vivi was still there, and Mystery; he couldn’t abandon them. He couldn’t hurt them like he’d hurt Lewis.

It just seemed so _stupid_ now! Why had he been that jealous? Sure, he felt left out. It wasn’t a whole lot of fun traveling with the two of them once they hooked up - half the time it felt like he might as well have been alone. Lewis and Vivi were always up front, being all lovey-dovey, and he was just stuck riding in the back with the dog. Arthur loved Mystery, but it would’ve been nice if his supposed partners remembered he existed from time to time instead of getting _lost in each other’s eyes._ So, yeah, he’d felt kinda bitter over it all. But that didn’t mean he wanted anyone to _die!_

It would’ve been better if he’d left them for real. He’d bandied the idea about, back when he was in his worst moods. It would have been so easy to just go back home, get some kind of normal boring job where he’d never have to see another ghost in his life, and let his friends continue their adventures without the added baggage. Then there wouldn’t have been anyone around dumb enough to get themselves _possessed_ because of some childish resentment.

It wasn’t like he really contributed anything to the investigations, either. He was just a coward, hiding behind Lewis at the first creepy sound. Sometimes he thought they just kept him around because he knew how to fix the stupid old van when it broke down; the second they made enough money to just get a new one, he’d be out on his ass. Why would they need him? Even now, Vivi didn’t need him, not really. He hadn’t stepped up to the plate, she’d just filled the gaps in the team Lewis left behind.

If killing him would’ve helped Lewis move on, maybe he _should’ve_ just stood there and let it happen.

Arthur stood and moved to the window. It faced east, down the road they’d come, and he could see the tangled branches of the forest just on the horizon. Not the house, though. He’d seen it vanish in the rear-view mirror as he drove away, and it didn’t look like it had reappeared.

His left arm twinged, and he rubbed his good hand over it with a wince. The prosthetic wasn’t capable of aches, of course. The doctors told him the phantom pains should lessen within a few months, but it had been two years now and every day proved them wrong.

What if he went back? Could he still fix this somehow? Lewis must have been haunting this area ever since he died - just because his house had vanished didn’t mean he was _gone._ Maybe he could talk to him. Just explain what had happened that night, and see if it changed anything. Arthur didn’t want to die, but he also didn’t want to go on knowing that he maybe could have done right by his friend after all, but just _didn’t._ He had to try.

Mystery was still asleep on the bed, curled up where his master had been. The sight brought a small smile to Arthur’s face, and he reached forward to run a hand over the dog’s ears before grabbing the keys. He kept his hand tight around them to keep them from jingling too loudly; Mystery would wake up, the barking would wake Vivi, and he _really_ didn’t want company for this. There was a pad of hotel stationery on the nightstand, so he took it and scrawled a quick note:

_Viv,_

_Couldn’t sleep. Went for a drive. If I’m not back by morning -_

Arthur paused, then crossed that last part out. After a further moment of thought, he crumpled the note up and tossed it in the trash. If he wasn’t back by morning, she didn’t need to go charging in after him. They’d find the van and return it to her, and people could think whatever they wanted about where he’d gone.

\---

There was no house left in the woods. But in its place, Arthur found a cave.

He was dead certain it hadn’t been there when they passed through the last time. There was no way in _hell_ he’d have driven past that thing without noticing. But there it was, looking almost exactly like it did the first time he saw it - except this time it glowed not green, but a vibrant pink.

The world was spinning around him as Arthur opened the driver’s door and stumbled out. He only made it a few steps before dropping to the grass, one hand pressed loosely against his churning stomach. Why did Lewis have to make _this?_

Stupid question. He knew the answer.

Okay, deep breaths. Deep breaths. But despite his thoughts, he sat in the grass and hyperventilated, good hand clutching at his chest. This was worse than going in the mansion had been. He hadn’t known what to expect then. He’d never actually _been there before._ Now, all he saw when he looked up was the four of them entering the cave together, the last time he’d seen Lewis alive.

“God dammit...” he wheezed to himself. “Get _up.”_ He couldn’t do this now. There was no room for him to be a coward _here,_ of all places. He couldn’t fuck this up again. Blindly, he felt around in the grass until his fingers bumped the flashlight, then supported himself against the van as he forced his quivering body to its feet.

One step at a time. Into the cave.

It still took him a good twenty minutes to cross the short distance to its mouth, but he made it there. In a way, it sort of helped that everything was pink instead of green now. Caves of any color weren’t exactly his favorite thing anymore, but green was the _worst._ Pink would probably just kill you, and he’d learned that there were worse things in the world.

“Lewis?” He clicked his flashlight on and shone the beam inside. There was no movement. Nothing but black rocks, and what looked like two tunnel openings a little way ahead. Arthur bit back a nervous whimper and forced himself to keep going.

Up or down? Yeah, no, that wasn’t even really a question. He barely even glanced at the sign (had it been written in that weird alphabet before?) before turning down the right-hand path.

_Clang!_ Arthur jumped, cutting off a short shriek at the sound as he realized what it was. He’d smacked his left arm into the wall, hard enough to break off a sharp-looking chunk of rock. Wincing, he ran his good hand lightly over the scraped metal. Damn thing. He always had trouble telling where exactly it was; he couldn’t feel it like you would a normal arm. Holding it a little closer to his body, he kept moving.

He’d never been in this part of the cave. From here, he could appreciate just how tall the stalagmites were. They spiraled high above his head, the tips of the dark stone just visible in the flashlight’s beam. They would have been even taller than Lewis, had the two of them gone this way instead.

“It could have been so _easy.”_ The sound of his own plaintive voice echoing in the dark startled him a little, but it was _true._ “I mean, if you and me just came down here, and Mystery and Vivi went up top...” It wouldn’t have been a problem. Lewis could have taken him in a fight easy, even if he _was_ possessed, and then...well, he wasn’t sure what they would have done then, but at least no one would be dead.

Or they could have split into different groups, or any of a million other little things. He’d gone through the list plenty of times, even though it didn’t really help to focus on what _could_ have been. Even Mystery was sick of hearing him talk about that. The silence here was getting to him. Arthur turned about, looking around the chamber and clutching his good arm close to his chest in a bid for heat. His breath misted in the air. That must mean he was getting close.

He turned the light to his feet and immediately drew up short. Thick magenta fog was rolling in, rendering everything below his ankles totally invisible. And there was more of it coming even as he watched - it’d probably be above his head pretty soon, if he didn’t freeze to death first. This wasn’t at all what he’d expected. Lewis was usually one to cut right to the chase - dropping his murderer into his crypt and then charging, for example. Arthur knew he had no right to criticize Lewis for _anything_ at this point, but toying with him just seemed uncharacteristic.

It was fucking working, though. He already felt light-headed, and the shivering was _not_ just due to the cold. This was all on purpose, just to scare him even worse than before, wasn’t it? Lewis knew him so well. Sharp tears bit at his eyes at the thought. “God dammit, Lew!” he called out, not bothering to try to keep his voice from cracking. “If you’re gonna kill me, could you just come out here and DO it? Please?”

The pink mist swirled around him in thick clouds. Its color seemed to shift as it moved, darkening from magenta to purple, then blue, then... _green._

Arthur took two steps backwards, and turned to run.


End file.
